


Shady Grove

by PinguMew98



Category: Godless (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Inappropriate 1800s concepts of foreign cultures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 06:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13229817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguMew98/pseuds/PinguMew98
Summary: More Callie backstory!





	Shady Grove

**Author's Note:**

> There is still a dearth if Godless fics so I figured I would add another about my favorite gals. Also, this was written on my phone as my spouse, some friends, and i traveled across Sri Lanka on holiday (if you ever have a chance to go, go - it’s breathtaking) so forgive errors.

Callie sorted the primers as the shuffle of small feet proceeded out of the small whorehouse turned schoolhouse. She felt eyes staring at her. It wasn’t an uncommon occurance - when she was a whore, there had been a lot of males gazing hungrily at her. Even in the male-drought, she could feel some of the women staring, desperate for an intimacy they now lacked. “If you have a question about your child’s homework...” she turned, assuming the eyes belonged to a worried mother. Instead, she turned to see Maggie leaning against the doorframe. A smile crept across Callie’s face. 

Pushing herself off the frame, Maggie pulled her hat off her head.

“Good afternoon Miss Dunne. I figured you’d need someone to walk you home. You know how dangerous streets can be. Full of ruffians and the like.”

  
“Well Miss McNue, you do know I live right upstairs.” Callie replied cheekily.

  
“Last time I checked, I believe you lived tother side of town.”

  
Callie beamed. She left the primers and walked upstairs, arriving back downstairs with a parasol in hand.

“I was misaken Miss McNue. And you can never be too careful with ruffians about.”

  
Maggie fought the smile playing at her lips, offering Callie her arm. Hooking arms, the pair walked out into the street.  
Maggie could feel eyes on her - it was uncomfortable. Everyone in town knew the pair was romantically linked, just as they knew Sarah and Charlotte were, but the fact they showed it was, queer. Maggie felt a hand gently rub her arm and it caused her quickly rising heartbeat to settle a little.

  
_Two days after the explosion_

_  
Mary Agnes slammed her hand against the table, her unweldly hair in even more of an untamed mess, accentuated by a dress that hadn’t been cleaned in days. The dress had once been a passable sunflower yellow dress, but now, a swirling miasma of soot and dirt. “Listen ya’ll. I know all of us just lost someone we loved, but we need a plan.”_

_  
Wailing was replaced by muffled intermittent sobs. “Now as I see it, we got two choices. Either we all pack up and leave, or we continue on living here. I plan on livin here, cause it’s my home.”_

__  
“But without the men, what are we to do?” Sarah queried, eyes red and puffy.  


_Mary Agnes brushed a stray tangle of hair out of her face.“We continue in our husbands jobs. Most of us have a passable knowledge of their duties to make due.”_

_  
“What about jobs like, the deputy?” Charlotte asked. Mary Agnes stared at her stone faced. She could already tell by the way she asked, Charlotte would fight her every step of the way. But she’d stay. And her staying meant a great many would as well._

_  
“I’m up for the task.” A voice called from the mass inside the hotel parlor._

_  
Mary Agnes peered into the crowd, trying to determine who had spoken up. A russel revealed Whitey Winn as the voice. “Ain’t no one gots better hands than these.” The young boy boasted. The newly minted mayor had qualms about putting a kid in such a position, especially one as brash and arrogant as Whitey. But she had no choice. “Very well.”_

__  
“What about a schoolteacher? Misser French was a bachelor.” Charlotte asked again. Mary Agnes clenched and uncjenched her fists and ground her jaw.  
There was a resounding silence. 

_  
“Well, if we don’t have a schoolteacher, it’s pointless...”_

_  
“I can do it.” Came a slow drawl from the middle of the mass._

_  
Charlotte snapped her head around and Mary Agnes craned her neck to see who had spoken._

_  
And a vision in white walked through the mass, like Moses parting the sea. Mary Agnes stared at the beauty, the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes on. But of course, every man thought she was the most beautiful woman..._

_  
“I don’t think a...”_

__  
Callie knew where Charlotte was going with her sentence before she finished.  
“My late husband Warren, we was traveling west, he was to be a professor at a college before he died. He taught me a fair bit and I read his books before, taking up employment in town. I’m as qualified as any to teach basic reading an’ writin’.”  


_For some reason, Mary Agnes’ heart sank a little when Callie netioned her husband. Who knew the town whore was once married to a college professor...  
_

_“Then it’s settled. Whitey will take on as the new town deputy once he’s gotten some proper training. And Miss...” Mary Agnes hesitated. She didn’t actually know the woman’s last name.  
_

_“Dunne.”  
_

_“Miss Dunne will take on as the new school teacher.”_

_  
“Where will the schoolhouse be?” Charlotte interjected._

__  
‘Sweet baby Jesus I’m going to shoot that lady.’ Mary Agnes thought.  


_“We could use Magdelana’s. Not like it’s going to get any use now.” Callie mentioned offhandedly._

_  
Charlotte visibly bristled._

_  
“That makes a lot of sense Miss Dunne. Can you have the place ready within the week?”_

_  
Callie shrugged, “Shouldn’t be a problem.”_

_  
“Well, if there are no further objections,” Mary Agnes stared at Charlotte, daring her to say sothing more, “I believe that concludes our Town Hall meeting.”_

__  
The women shuffled out of the hotel. Sarah came over to comfort Charlotte. Mary Agnes gathered up her skirts and pushed around to Callie.  


_“Listen, if you need any help with cleaning up the...” Was it impolite to call the whorehouse a whorehouse?  
_

_“Whorehouse.” Callie said plainly.  
_

_“Right.” Mary Agnes cleared her throat audibly._

_“Let me know.”  
_

_Callie smiled and Mary Agnes’ heart skipped a beat. “Well Mrs...”  
_

_“Miss McNue.” She corrected quickly._

_Callie quirked her head as though a dog._

_“No need to carry on a legacy I ain’t got no more.”_

_  
“Well Miss McNue, I’d sure appreciate the help.”_

_  
And with a swish of skirts, Callie left._

  
Maggie felt better once she was back in the comfort of her, their, home. Callie was leaning her parisol against the wall.

“I’m glad I had the best shot in all La Belle walking me home.”  
Maggie smiled as she removed her hat, bashful. Callie began to untie Maggie’s neckscarf. “Now what would be the best way to repay such a courtesy?” Her tone, dripping with seduction.

  
Maggie’s heart rate quickened and her desire seemed to press at every fiber of her being.

  
“Tell me about your life before La Belle.” 

Callie was stunned, she could practically feel Maggie’s desire. Never in her life had someone rejected an offer of sex for something as mundane as hearing about her life.

  
_Mary Agnes McNue showed up to Magdelana’s in her husbands’ old trousers, shirt, and vest. And Callie Dunne had never been so attracted to someone in her life. For the first time, the sonnets of Shakespeare, the poems of Sappho, all made sense.  
_

_“Hello there Miss Dunne.” Mary Agnes said, removing her hat as she entered the whorehouse.  
_

_“Please, call me Callie.”  
_

_“Well then, call me Maggie.”_

_  
Callie smiled and Maggie thought the sun was incapable of outshining Callie’s smile. “I shall.”_

  
“Why the sudden interest in my past?”

Callie asked as she busied herself with making some coffee for Maggie and tea for herself. “You never cared before.”

  
“I dunno. It’s jus, you remember my birthday when I can’t hardly remember and I wanna know you better...I guess.” Maggie shuffled uncomfortably. Rarely did she analyze her thoughts, especially in light of a very rousing sex proposal. Callie didn’t reply so Maggie took a seat on the couch.

  
There was a palpable silence. The fire to heat the water crackled. Maggie shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

  
“That mighta been the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.” Came a meek reply.

  
“Wha? Asked you about your past?” Maggie was confused.

  
“No.” There was an audible sniff, as if someone had just finished crying. “Someone not using me when offered.”

  
“Ah hell.” Maggie said as she got up from the couch and went into the kitchen.

Callie was determiningly prodding the fire as if she could will it to make water boil faster.

  
“ _The first rule here at Magdelana’s” Magdelana said as she inspected a nude Callie, “is that it isn’t love if they pay you for sex.”_

_Callie made feeble attempts to cover her body but Magdalena slapped her hands away._

_“Rule number two: there is no shame. Meaning, you are not ashamed of your body - it is the greatest tool you have. You are not ashamed of what you are asked to do - humans have strange needs. You are not ashamed of who asks you. Rule three: this is a business, you are providing a service and you demand to be paid according to your skill. Take by force if necssary. This is a rough life and it will not be easy. If you don’t take what’s yours, you will be left with nothing. Rule four: there is no white knight out there ready to take you away from this life. In the end, none of them have the balls to follow through.”_  
Callie felt the judging, peering eyes of Magdalena assess her very being as she rattled off her rules. It was the most humiliated she had felt.  


_“Good.” Magdalena concluded as she threw Callie’s dress back at her. “You have the makings of a very successful whore. You might even run this place when I’m gone.”  
_

_She nodded her head as she scrambled to put her clothes back on.  
_

_“You set the price for your service. I charge $20 a week for room and board. Any debts you need paid off, I’ll handle for 20% interest. The bank won’t give you a loan unless you re-marry or your affairs are handled by your father. Do we have a deal?”_

_  
Callie nodded her head vigorously. What other choice did she have? Stranded in New Mexico with no husband._

_  
Technically, whoring was not difficult work. It took a while to shed her sense of shame (of her predicament) and disgust (at the male physique). But at some point, it happened. She was the Town whore and people paid her handsomly to be with her. “Whores are always the richest people in town” Magdelana told her._

_  
About three months into her stint, she saw the most beautiful woman ride into town. The woman was angry. She jumped off her horse, hair and skirts akilter, yelling at the local shopkeeper. Callie was transfixed. She watched the woman rage and roar and Callie wished she could be there to sooth such a beautiful wild stallion._

  
Maggie regretted coming in the minute she saw Callie. Maggie doesn’t like doing feelings and there was a whole mess of feelings she wasn’t equipped to handle.

  
“Shit.”

  
‘Great response...’ Maggie thought caustically. Although the response didn’t seem to bother Callie.

  
“I don’t mean shit it’s...” Maggie started floundering. Sputtering for words, babble came out, “It’s, jus, I saw that painting the German was doin’, an I was thinkin’ ‘bout how sweet it was and t’all an’...” Maggie trailed off, mind awhirl. “Callie, do you speak German?”

  
“Yes. Warren was a philosophy professor. You can’t do much teaching in philosophy without Greek and Latin, plus you usually do German and French too. He got into the Orient before we headed West so he was working on the language of the Mohammedans. He was always rotten with language so I learned as well to help him out. Forgotten a fair bit, not much use for anything but English out here.”

  
“Jes-us. Here you are speaking languages I ain’t ever heard of while I’m barely speakin’ English and the like.”

  
Callie smiled. She loved Mary Agnes McNue more than she could rightly say. Turning, she snuffed out the fire before turning back to Maggie and saying, “Well, I’ve always been told I’ve got the gift of tongues.”


End file.
